Hadleigh needs a traffic-free heart (From Echo)

Hadleigh needs a traffic-free heart

1:37pm Tuesday 7th February 2012 in Letters

The new Morrisons supermarket car park in Hadleigh has been proved to be woefully inadequate. With new customers coming from a wider catchment area, and much-increased staff, it is not enough.

The idea that the Endway and Homefields car parks could be closed and built on was always seen by most residents to be not viable.

Morrisons car park, it was said, would be open to all visitors to Hadleigh. The new Morrisons is not a retail shed, it’s a solid structure and the two large, high atriums are not there for embellishment.

How long, I wonder, before they seek planning permission to use the roof for an overflow carpark?

When a noted Hadleigh historian, born in its High Street 80 years ago, first suggested in the Echo in 2001 a pedestrian precinct, I thought the idea was worth considering.

As he pointed out, most of the traffic which streams through brings little or no business to Hadleigh.

Towns everywhere are realising the benefits of having a traffic-free centre, and I thought it would come to Hadleigh eventually.

The A13 from Tarpots to Southend is basically one lane, and the part through the High Street is the same width as most of it. The bus stop would need to be realigned. Entry from the Homefields area may be slowed, but anyone filtering into the A13 has the same problem.

Let’s be positive and consider the benefits of giving the town a heart. Let’s turn Hadleigh into a traffic-free oasis of calm.

Barry Wootten
St John’s Road
Hadleigh